


You Have Done It

by Skyepilot



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: End of the Beginning, F/M, Friendship, Love, Paranoid Phil, Pensive Skye, Providence, Secrets, Skye is an Agent of SHIELD, Turn Turn Turn, badges, badges mean more than badges my friends, close to cannon, relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-26
Updated: 2014-07-26
Packaged: 2018-02-10 14:01:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2027739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyepilot/pseuds/Skyepilot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Series of vignettes staying close to canon, showing Skye and Coulson growing closer during End of the Beginning, Turn, Turn, Turn, and Providence. The titles are taken from the poem "Love" by Roy Croft.</p><p>http://myhomeoflove.tripod.com/lovepoems/l/lovebyroycroft.html</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Without a sign.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set during "End of the Beginning." Skye and Coulson are keeping secrets from the team, and Skye has to deal with Coulson's growing paranoia.

"I'm not sure I trust SHIELD," he said. 

They were sitting in the back of the SUV. Again.

Whispering.

Their sneaking had gotten better. Instead of going into his office or her bunk (which had caused an ill-timed Fitz to turn on his heel and promptly march in the other direction), they'd agreed to just hide in plain sight.

So, the SUV it was.

"The Clairvoyant," she replied, finishing his thought.

"Yes," he said. "I can't shake this feeling." He shifted in the seat, leaned back, but there was tension in his posture. He was just trying to get comfortable long enough to wrestle with his own thoughts and he was being impatient with all of it.

"And it's not just the Clairvoyant," he added, his eyes glancing over at hers when he'd finally turned still. "Other things, too."

"Other things, like?" she asked, crossing her arms.

"May, for one," he said after a long pause.

"You can't be serious," Skye said, sitting up and leaning towards him. "She'd do anything for you."

"She tried to redirect me, Skye," he warned, looked away out through the tinted glass "Keep me away from digging around Project TAHITI, and away from..." He cut himself off. Right there.

"What?" she asked, but she knew instantly it had to do with her. He always made a certain kind of face when it involved her.

She didn't need his help with this one. Because now it made sense. Why May had confronted her in the corridor, told her she needed to choose why she was there.

"May wanted you to stop looking into my file," she finished. "So you would stop looking into yours."

He laced his fingers together and stared down at them.

"Going back to Quinn," he began, "and Dr. Hall."

"Yeah," she said, shrugging. "Dr. Hall. It was him though, wasn't it? That tipped Quinn off? You wrote that in your report. He admitted to it."

"No," he replied, agitated. "No. What if, someone gave Hall just what he wanted? He was obsessed with taking down Quinn. It was personal, and someone used that."

"Is that it? You think someone's using May?" she asked, softly.

He started breathing through his nose and she reached out a comforting hand, watching him tense when she put it on his arm.

"I don't want to believe it," he said, his jaw clenching. "I don't."

Skye ran her hand gently down his arm.

"Hey, have you been getting any sleep?"

His posture slumped slightly, and he leaned away from her, against the door.

"Don't concern yourself with that. We need answers."

"Yes, and you know what else we need? You not cracking right now," she said, sitting back and folding her arms. "Because you seem pretty on edge."

"She's piloting the Bus, Skye," he said, wondering if she really knew what cracking looked like on SHIELD's terms. "It would be very unlikely that any of us would get out of here alive if she turned."

Skye decided to ignore the implications of that. She just didn't think May was capable of it. 

"She has Level 7 access to the agency," he continued. "It's got a lot of moving parts. She has buy-in." He closed his eyes and thought about how much he really, if he were honest with himself, wanted to be outside of it. What he wouldn't give, to be like her. 

On the outside looking in.

"Don't ask me to watch her," Skye said flatly. "I won't do that."

"No," he said. "You wouldn't." He smiled sadly over at her for a moment, even though she was frowning back at him.

"I want you to watch me," he continued. "I"m asking. Make sure that I don't make choices based on past experience alone. I need you to listen and to pay attention to the information, look for patterns. Find the exploit."

"Gotcha," she said. "Looks like I'm doing all the heavy lifting, then."

She sighed back into the seat, smiled over at him.

He looked back, thinking lots of things, saying nothing.

"Just sayin'...."

She was not going to give him ground to take her where he was at the moment. She wanted to pull him up out of it. 

"Whoever used Quinn to shoot you, they wanted to get to me," he said, wearing that look on his face again. "Don't forget that. They know," he paused.

"They know how much..."

"Yes," she agreed, staring back at him, feeling emboldened by him saying that out loud. "And I know how guilty you feel about that."

She leaned over and put her hand over his. His eyes went soft, like she had gotten too close and he was afraid.

"I can do this," she said, squeezing his hand, looking back at him defiantly. "I can."

"I don't doubt that," he said. "I know that. And, you're right," his voice trailed off, his fingers pressing at the bridge of his nose. 

"I am tired."

He let go of her hand, smiling weakly as he cracked the door and slid out of the SUV.


	2. Without a word.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> During "Turn, Turn, Turn". Skye is thinking about getting her badge in terms of significant declarations and what that might mean for the future. And realizes she's in his shoes.

She stared down at the SHIELD badge.

After everything. She couldn't even find words.

The weight of running this op, it was heavy. Not unbearable, but it definitely had its own taste and feel and she was still adjusting. 

And she needed to stay focused.

Delving back into the suspect files, she began loading the individual phones with the details to set the double blind in motion. Her fingers hovered over the keyboard and she paused.

Her eyes kept darting back to the badge.

He had put aside any doubts and fears. He'd let her in, despite the fact that she worked best outside the system. He wanted her in it. 

With him. 

She was an agent of SHIELD. 

The silly, off thought came to her, that maybe someone putting a ring on her finger might never mean just as much as him handing her that badge. She knew that wasn't true.

Probably.

Whoever they were, they would probably not be him. Or her handsome 50-year-old boss. Or break all the rules to save her life. However, she was pretty sure there was just enough protocol left in Phil Coulson to make sure nothing like that ever happened.

No one had ever given her anything. 

He said she'd earned it, and that was true. But the way he'd orchestrated it, in front of all of them, he was making a point.

And his eyes. She was smiling thinking about it. Without having to say a word.

He gave her something. It felt significant. 

He wasn't treating her like she was Level 1, although Hand had made a point to remind her of that. Because Coulson didn't care what Hand thought about her.

He cared what she thought.

As uncomfortable as keeping secrets from the team had made her, they had also grown closer as a result. That was how things had been with them right from the beginning. Every time they had hit a new roadblock, instead of it falling apart, somehow they'd moved past it.

Their relationship would grow closer and she marveled at the way she knew him now. How intimate it seemed.

Or, was. Just been a brief moment when they were in the hall, he heard the shuffle of footsteps. They were whispering, and he'd pushed her into the utility closet, in the dark, pressed into the corner near the door until it went quiet again.

All for the sake of their secrets, but, she had felt his heart through his suit. He'd managed to squeak out, "Clear," as he stepped back from her and avoided eye contact for the next several minutes.

Now she was the one having the stupid thoughts. That she might screw this up. What she might lose after gaining all of this. 

Guess this is what he was feeling, thinking about the liability of caring for someone so much, you wanted to build a castle around them. With a moat. 

A very big moat.

He'd probably like to see Garrett again, after all of this time. Catch up. And he trusted Garrett, they'd been in some really tight spots together. They would protect each other. Garrett would protect him.

May and Blake. Blake had been suspicious about Coulson. So, he could turn his suspicions on May and see if there was maybe something to Coulson's nagging feelings about her. May could take care of herself, and Blake was obviously as much on the hunt for the Clairvoyant as they were.

Ward might benefit from a little time with a specialist that wasn't prickly, but they both had a fondness for Garrett and specialists knew how to handle themselves without an extraction.

He had trusted her, and they were taking a big chance on her. 

She needed this to pay off.


	3. Without a touch.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set during Providence. Skye goes to talk to Coulson just after May (bad timing, May!) drops the bomb about Fury not being in control of TAHITI.

"Hey," she said, sliding into his office holding on to her laptop. 

She watched him stare out the window from his chair.

"Not in a good place, Skye," he replied, not looking up.

"No. You're right on the edge," she said plainly. 

"Might be on my way over, actually."

She walked over and put her laptop down on the desk, went to stand next to him.

"I don't know what I'm doing," he said.

He let his eyes tilt up to hers. 

"What am I doing?"

"You're doing what you've always done," she said. "You considered your options, and you're taking the one you think is best for the team."

"May, told me things..." he said, getting to his feet. "About TAHITI."

"There's more?" Skye asked, eyebrows raised. Wow. "When?"

"Just now."

Coulson had told her about TAHITI, after Skye had woken up from her injury, and as soon as they'd had a moment alone. He said he'd told her because he might be compromised, to protect the team. But she knew that he was just afraid. 

In the past, he might've shared all of this with May, but his doubts now clouded their friendship. And so, he'd turned to Skye.

"Fury ordered me into TAHITI, but, he wasn't in charge of the project," Coulson said.

"Who was?" Skye said, understanding the implications of that perfectly well.

"Dunno," he said, shaking his head. His face wore that bitter expression, she'd seen it a few times. It was probably the most unpleasant of his. When he felt pushed to do something that disgusted him. When he felt pushed too far.

"Coulson," she said, touching his shoulder. Really, she wanted him to stop wearing that face. 

"I thought we were beyond..."

"Phil," she interrupted. "You told me to ask you," she began again. "When you might be making choices based on past experience alone."

"Is this one of those times?" he snapped. "That what you want to know?"

"No," she said, touching his face. "You want to know. I'm just here to remind you. Remember?"

His posture relaxed. "Do you trust me?" he asked her. Taking her hand away from his face, he held it, his thumb making a circle in her palm.

"Always," she said, struggling with the intensity of his stare, but not wanting to let go of it, either.

"Then, help me," he said.

She grabbed her lap top and sat down in the chair.

"NATO satellite," she said. "There'll be one heading over those coordinates. How long from where we touch down to the destination?"

"Hard to say. The terrain is rough, poor ground conditions. Maybe 4 hours. If there's nothing out there," he said, thinking out loud.

"When we get back we'll be sitting ducks," she said. "Great."

The determination in his face let her know he was planning to go through with it anyway.

"You really think it's Fury?" 

He nodded.

"Just give them a choice," she said. "That's all you can do." 

He sat down in the chair across from her. 

"Okay." 

Watching her work, lost in his thoughts, he finally said, "You deserve better than this." 

Skye raised her eyebrows, looking up at him. 

"Well, if we survive," she said, trying not to smirk. "Level 6, at least."

He smiled at her. "Trying to get me fired?"

"I'll do my best, sir."


End file.
